


A Braver Man Than I

by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Awkward Conversations, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-01 08:52:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18332735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/pseuds/gaslightgallows
Summary: Vir is worried. He has heard rumors about Lennier and the President's wife...





	A Braver Man Than I

**Author's Note:**

> Another rather silly fic from 2012, resurrected from Livejournal. References some bits of headcanon regarding Minbari biology that rivendellrose and I came up with over (god help us) a decade ago. This was really just an excuse to make Vir squirm, bless 'im.
> 
> If you're over on Tumblr, please consider following me at [gaslightgallows.tumblr.com](http://gaslightgallows.tumblr.com/) for more fic, reblogs about writing, and currently SOME EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS. Thank you for reading and especially for commenting. Comments are love. ♥

Vir stood at the edge of the Zocolo and looked around worriedly. He knew that Lennier and President Sheridan usually had lunch at the little Indian stand at this time, almost every day, but there was that damn Abai'i trade expo this week and the central corridor was even _more_ crowded than normal... ah! They were just rising from their meal... Sheridan saw him first and smiled warmly, a little wariness in his blue eyes as he wondered what new crisis was being brought to him. "Vir, what can I do for you?"

"Actually, Mr. President, I was looking for Lennier. If I'm not interrupting?"

"No, no, we were just finishing up. Lennier, I'll probably be in late meetings tonight. If you could let Delenn know...?"

Lennier bowed slightly. "I will convey that message." Sheridan nodded his thanks and turned to push his way through the crowd. "You wished to speak with me, Vir?"

Vir opened his mouth--and then thought better of it. "Not here. It's, um... kind of a delicate subject."

The Minbari looked perplexed but politely refrained from comment until they were safely alone in Lennier's sparsely-furnished quarters. "Are you able to speak now?" he asked. "If you prefer, I could wait outside."

It was so unlike Lennier to make anything resembling a joke that the dry humor went straight over Vir's head. "Lennier, you know I consider you a friend. Right?"

"Yes."

"Oh, good." Vir let out a sigh of relief. "Because, well... I'm worried about you, and I _really_ hope you won't be offended--that is, you're not... you don't seem to be the type of person who would be... adept at, shall we say, romantic intrigues..." 

"Vir. If I may ask... what are you talking about?"

"There are rumors," said the Centauri, all in a rush. "I mean, there have _always_ been rumors, about you and Delenn—just among my people!" he hastened to assure Lennier, whose dark eyes had suddenly gone flat. "I promise! W-we don't talk about that sort of thing with members of other species. It causes too many problems."

"I can imagine."

"And I've been to Minbar, I know how close teachers and students are—I know it doesn't mean anything _necessarily_ intimate—but we Centauri really love a good, juicy bedroom rumor, and—"

"Vir!" Lennier's voice had an edge to it that Vir had never heard before. "Is there a question in there somewhere?"

"...Are you and Delenn having an affair?"

"Of course not."

"Oh good," Vir sighed again.

"But we are sleeping together."

"You're... wait, what?" He stared at Lennier in dumb shock. "I'm sorry, I'm a little deaf in my right ear. Did you just say that you and Delenn are sleeping together?"

"Yes, I did," Lennier nodded, a slight amused smile playing about his lips. "Although it is only a recent development."

"Since you came back from training."

"More or less, yes."

Vir was forced to reappraise his quiet friend in a new light. "That's—well, that's just... gah. Lennier, you've got a lot of..." He gestured to his abdomen weakly. "You're a braver man than I am."

"I do not understand..."

"I mean, you're sleeping with Delenn behind Sheridan's back! I hope it's really--I hope it's worth it... Because if he finds out—"

"He knows."

" _Excuse me?_ "

Lennier's face was very serious. "Vir, the behavior you assumed I was engaging in is almost unheard of among my people. Such a grievous deception would hardly be worth any fleeting pleasure that might be gained, and if discovered, the dishonor for all would be... too great for any to bear. Delenn took me to her bed under a carefully-prescribed cultural situation, and Sheridan is aware of it."

"Wait, wait a minute... _Delenn_ took _you_ to...?" Vir blinked rapidly. "Shouldn't that be..." He waved his hands in a pained back-and-forth motion. "The other way around?" 

Lennier swallowed a sigh. "No."

"...May I sit down? My head's spinning." Vir plopped onto the small couch and pressed a hand to his high forehead. "Lennier, forgive me, but... I am _very_ confused!"

Lennier poured his friend a glass of water and sat down in the chair opposite him. "I'm not surprised. I was very confused as well, the first time I saw Ambassador Mollari interacting with his wives." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "In Minbari society, there is very little division between the sexes—nothing like what exists among the Centauri. However, in our culture, in domestic situations—in marriages and in homes, the males defer to the females. How to raise a child, for example, or whether or not to take a post in another city—these things will of course be discussed between the wife and husband, and prayed and meditated over accordingly, but the ultimate decision rests with the female."

"Well, that's weir—that's very commendable, of course, but... Even in sex?" 

"Yes."

"So..." Vir was having visible trouble wrapping his mind around the new information. "That means you're essentially Delenn's... male mistress?"

Lennier's smile was broad and a little bashful, a highly strange expression for Vir to see there. "Not exactly." His hands, grown lean with pike training, clasped and unclasped nervously. "Vir, with the exception of President Sheridan and Doctor Franklin, what I am about to tell you has never been told to a non-Minbari. I want your word as my friend that you will never reveal this to anyone else. Ever."

"I promise," swore Vir nervously, wondering what he was getting himself into now. 

The Minbari looked down at his hands. "I am not, to use your highly inaccurate terminology, Delenn's 'male mistress,' for the simple reason that I am not a male."

Vir stared at him for a moment, then gulped down the rest of his water. "Are you sure you don't have anything stronger than this?"

"...I have tea?"

"That'll do." He pulled out a bright purple silk handkerchief and mopped his forehead while Lennier put water on to heat and measured out leaves to steep. "So if you're not a male, and you're obviously not a female--I mean, that is, I _hope_ you're obviously not a female... then... what are you?"

"Unlike Centauri and Humans, the Minbari as a species have three separate and distinct sexes: male, female, and _helas'dar_. Loosely translated, the term means 'the third body.' I am a _helas'dar_."

"But you look male."

"To you, I look male," Lennier corrected, trying not to roll his eyes, "and to members of most other species, especially those with biological dimorphism. With only two sexes," he translated. "To a Minbari, it is obvious that I am not." He laid a hand lightly on the side of his crest, forcing Vir to mentally compare his friend to the people he had encountered on Minbar. The females all had bone crests that curved in an arch around their skulls, and males had the spiked Warrior crests, the backward up-sloping crest of the Religious, or the tight, low crest of the Workers. Thinking back, Vir couldn't recall ever seeing another crest like Lennier's, with its smooth, gentle peaks and lack of serrations. "There are other differences, of course, but this is the most publicly noticeable."

Vir took the tea he was handed and gulped it down in one go, like a shot of alcohol. The almost-scalding liquid had nearly the same steadying effect on his nerves. "What kind—er, if you don't mind me asking... um. There are other differences?"

Lennier leveled an inscrutable gaze at his friend. "Did you have a purpose in these questions? Or is it mere prurient interest?"

"You started it! I never asked if you were male or—or not male! I was only worried because I thought you were having an affair with the President's wife!"

"And if I was, you planned to do what?"

"I told you: I was _worried_." Vir sounded genuinely hurt. "You said so yourself, it's not a very Minbari thing to do and... well, Sheridan has a terrible temper."

"He is not... completely at ease with the situation," Lennier admitted slowly, taking Vir's cup and refilling it with more than usual care. "But it was Delenn's wish, and one of our oldest and most sacred traditions."

"I can't see even Sheridan agreeing to let his wife take a lover..."

"She has not. In our language, I am now Delenn's _hela_ —her second husband." Vir silently grabbed the cup from his hand and gulped it down fast. "Is that so strange? Your people take multiple spouses--"

"We take multiple _wives_ ," Vir corrected. "There's no precedent in Centauri law for a woman having more than one husband." And he actually shuddered. "That would be... unmasculine. And very messy."

"Messier than Ambassador Mollari's marriages?"

Vir hemmed and hawed and held out his cup for more tea.

"It does not happen often," said Lennier. "There are so few of my sex compared to the other two, that for females to regular take _helas_ as well as husbands would be impractical. To my knowledge, no woman other than Delenn has chosen to claim a _hela_ in centuries. My people are too useful for too many of us to absent ourselves from the general populace."

"Useful..." Vir frowned. "For...?"

"For the procreation of children. It is impossible for Minbari females to conceive without the assistance of a _helas'dar_."

"But if there aren't that many of you... Well, no wonder there aren't that many of you. I always thought—" Vir shut his mouth very quickly.

"Yes, I know what you thought." There was a definite hint of lofty amusement in Lennier's voice now. "I know that the Centauri think of my people as being too ascetic for such pleasures of the flesh. That is not the case. We simply don't talk about it the way other species do. After all... we don't wish to brag." Vir glared at him. Lennier merely smiled sweetly. "But to answer your original question: normally, members of my sex live together in secluded temples. When a husband and wife wish to attempt conception, they come to one of the temples. And if the time is right and there is compatibility between the three, one of my brothers will go and serve the female."

"Serve the—you mean have sex with her?"

"Yes. And no. The mechanics of the coupling are somewhat different. We—"

"No no no." Vir shook his head sharply, as though trying to clear his ears. "There are temples on Minbar, full of these _helas'dar_ —"

"The plural is actually _helasae'dar_."

"Whatever. Temples full of people like you, whose job is to have sex with whatever women come to visit them?"

Lennier thought about it. "That's a rather drastic simplification, but... yes, in broad outline."

Vir gaped dumbly at him. "And you're here? You could've spent your life having sex with a different woman every night—"

"That's really not how it works..."

"And you're _here_?"

The Minbari shrugged. "The lifestyle no longer appeals to me."

Lost for words, Vir drank off his tea. "You're weird."

"I'm aware of that."


End file.
